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1.01.2015

It Made My Heart Stop...

Originally, I planned for this post to be all about our Christmas Day festivities. Which certainly happened, but they were capped off with a very unexpected event that nearly caused me heart failure. I did think the Christmas Day pic below that my bro-in-law snapped was pretty funny. Both mine and the husband's face reflects much of how we feel about our daily life right now!

But Tuesday happened.

It started off completely normal and all the babies were acting fine, and even had some super cute moments that morning. We did some water color painting, then I read them a story before they did some Melissa & Doug sticker books prior to lunch. And I captured this priceless video where they all claimed each other as their best friends. Be still my heart!

After naps, I loaded up all four and hit up some drive thru errands, then Costco for a few bulk items then reloaded them into their car seats and drove to Target. We were halfway through our shopping list when I noticed Trystan, who was sitting in the front seat portion of the cart, was looking pretty sleepy. Her eyelids seemed heavy and she'd gotten quiet. It was nearly 7pm by this point (our day had started late and was therefore running late), so it wasn't wierd that she'd be getting tired. But I checked her forehead and asked her if she was feeling okay—she said she was—then hurriedly wrapped up our trip. Mid-checkout, I looked over to lay eyes on all four since two were in the cart and two were not. Trystan had slumped over in her seat like she'd fallen asleep and when I leaned in to check on her, I saw the blue around her lips, her half-open eyes rolling back and drool coming out of her mouth. It's the most horrifying image of your child ever. And the next few minutes felt like an eternity.

I grabbed her out of the cart and started banging on her back and checking her mouth to see if she was breathing and trying to get her to come to. Several women jumped to my assistance and I immediately asked someone to call 911 while working on Trystan, locating my other three kids (some of the ladies had also gathered them for me and were holding them) and relaying medical info to the woman on the phone with the 911 operator. The store manager had brought over the clinic nurse in the meantime—I had no idea that Target had a clinic—and she took Trystan and brought us over to the clinic to check her temp and oxygen levels. She put ice packs on her to help cool her off and her spO2 (oxygen) level was at 96 (out of 100) so that brought a tiny bit of relief. It meant she was breathing and hadn't been deprived of oxygen but for a very brief moment when she slumped in the shopping cart.

About this time the paramedics arrived and took over and Trystan was rolling in and out of consciouness. I was keeping a loose eye on the three kids and began crying and panicking all over again. They assured me she was going to be okay but needed to get her to the hospital as soon as possible. I started crying again because I had called the husband a few minutes prior and thankfully he was already home from work, but he hadn't arrived yet and I was afraid that Trystan was going to have to go to the hospital by herself because I couldn't leave the other kids. The medics had put her on the gurney and slid an oxygen mask on her and were just beginning to roll her out when the husband came around the corner. He had tears in his eyes as well and the whole thing was just so anxiety-ridden and terrifying. We swapped keys in a hurry and he took over Kailey, Harrison and Logan while I got in the ambulance with my sweet girl.

The moment we entered the hospital, the anxiety hit me again. Just being in a hospital setting is extremely hard for me with all the history I have in them. Between my two month stay on hospital bedrest prior to having the babies and enduring eight weeks of a magnesium IV and the babies' two month stay in the NICU after they were born. The hallways, the smell of the place, the IVs, the beeping machines—it all makes me shudder. All that paled in comparison, though, as I watched my little baby struggling to keep her eyes open. They took her temp again and it'd gone up a little more but was still only around 102.5. They gave her an IV, meds for the fever, anti-nausea meds since she vomited shortly after arriving and and IV fluids, which seemed to help immensely.

My parents arrived not longer after we'd gotten Trystan settled and shortly after, the husband arrived with the other three kids in tow. They were ecstatic to see their sister and were so concerned. Logan, especially, kept touching Trystan's arm, giving her stuffed animals, arranging her blanket and even let Trystan mess with her face when it made Trystan laugh.

After performing various tests from an EKG to blood tests for flu, RSV and other infections, chest x-rays and more, all results came back normal. Trystan's fever had dropped some and she seemed more herself, albeit completely exhausted. I fell asleep with her in the bed at one point until the doctor came in and we were discharged around 1:30am. My mom and Louis Dean had taken the other three back home and put them to bed hours earlier, so we were all too ready to join them and were grateful there were no red flags and we didn't have to stay overnight.

Needless to say, Trystan slept in my arms that night and I haven't let her out of sight for very long since Tuesday. She is still fighting a low grade fever so we're keeping up with the Advil, but she's eating, sleeping and playing just fine so I feel encouraged. Logan starting running a low fever yesterday which makes us all think it must've been a virus that created the perfect storm in Trystan's little body and caused the seizure. Hopefully the other two won't catch it, but there's no telling. It's highly unlikely anyone will get seizures, but they might struggle with some fever and sniffles.

I still need to schedule an EEG for Trystan, which her pediatrician ordered for her at our follow-up visit yesterday, so they can check her head and be sure there's nothing else going on. But in the meantime, I'm grateful that this New Year's was spent at home and not in the hospital! And that all my babies are (mostly) healthy!

9 comments:

Oh, Amber, so glad to hear that Trystan is doing a little better. The minute your mom put the news on facebook there were prayers going up for not only Trystan, but you and your whole family. You have a whole group here in Philadelphia praying for you and hoping things get back to normal (whatever that is) quickly. Your story brought tears to my eyes. That must have been so frightening. But your kids are troopers and I know they will be just fine.

That is absolutely terrifying! Bless the kind people who helped you in a moment of need. I feel just a bit better shopping alone at target with the quads knowing they have a clinic, I had no idea! Bless you all.

Poor Trystan! And poor mommy!! I posted on your moms blog- I have so enjoyed reading about your quad journey. My three year old has had two seizures, both related to fevers. The Drs say he will outgrow it- I pray that's the same for your baby girl. I know firsthand how scary it is, I will never forget the way he looked. Be strong and know there are many of us praying for her health.

That is so incredibly terrifying. Thank God you were able to react quickly enough, that Target had a clinic and that the medics were able to arrive in haste! God bless you and your little family. T&P with Trystan!!

Geez.I told her mom my heart skipped a beat when I saw her post about Trystan. How terrifying. I can even image. Pamela gave me one good scare when she was about 14 and she slipped at the pool and came down on her head. That is the most nauseating sound. Head against concrete. She had huge bump and headache but was checked out and was fine. So glad Trystan recovered. Hugs to you.

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